Pago Libre functions as a drumless avant-garde jazz quartet that merges the Ganelin Trio’s untamed energy with contemporary European compositional methods and a Mediterranean jazz sensibility. The ensemble delivers exploratory jazz through distinctive instrumentation featuring violin, piano, double bass, and French horn. Composition and improvisation receive equal emphasis, as do humor and emotion. Its recordings have appeared on Splasc(h), Leo, and TCB.
Contrary to widespread assumption, the name “Pago Libre” does not derive from Italian but instead forms an acronym drawn from the original members: Italian bassist Daniele Patumi, American violinist Steve Goodman, Swedish trumpeter Lars Lindvall, and Swiss pianist of Irish extraction John Wolf Brennan. The four musicians convened for the first time in 1988, yet their transatlantic dispersion ensured that activities remained intermittent from the outset. Their initial release, the 1990 album Extempora, emerged on the Italian new-jazz imprint Splasc(h). Goodman soon departed and Swiss violinist Tscho Theissing took his place, although the founding lineup participated in Brennan’s thirteen-piece ensemble on the 1993 CD Dance, You Monster, to My Soft Song!
Four years afterward, following scattered European engagements, Lindvall exited the group. Nearly half the compositions on the debut album had been credited to the trumpeter, with Brennan supplying the remainder, yet by the time of Lindvall’s departure Theissing had established himself as a gifted composer who recognized the quartet’s possibilities and shaped its characteristic sound. In October 1994 Russian French horn player Arkady Shilkloper joined as the permanent fourth member, and the configuration has remained unchanged since.
The reconstituted quartet issued a self-titled album for Bellaphon/L+R in 1995, later reissued by Leo, followed by the live recording Wake Up Call on Leo in 1998. Another three years elapsed before Cinemagique appeared. During the same period Brennan and Patumi pursued a sustained duo partnership that yielded Ten Zentences on Bellaphon in 1993 and Time Jumps — Space Cracks on Leo in 2002, while also working in the trio Aurealis alongside flutist Robert Dick.
